During the opening men's football match at Rajamangala Stadium on the afternoon of 3/12, organizers failed to play the national anthem's instrumental music during pre-match formalities for Vietnam and Laos. Players from both teams had to sing their national anthems without musical accompaniment.

Immediately after, the SEA Games 33 Organizing Committee (THASOC) sent letters to the Olympic Committees of Vietnam and Laos, apologizing and taking responsibility. Organizers identified the initial cause as a sound system malfunction.

Director general of the Sports Authority of Thailand Gongsak Yodmani inspects the swimming venue at SEA Games 33, at the Huamark Sports Complex in Bangkok, Thailand on 3/12. Photo: MGR Sport

This morning, Gongsak Yodmani, SAT director general and head of THASOC's Secretariat Office and International Relations Committee, personally visited Rajamangala Stadium to investigate.

In a television interview in Thailand, he confirmed it was purely a "technical error". According to the SAT director general, SEA Games 33 features over 50 sports, with member federations managing competitions and preparing facilities and technical aspects. For football, the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) is responsible.

"The sound manager from FAT stated that everything was normal during testing", Gongsak said. "However, once the match began, staff could hear through their headphones, but the stadium's loudspeaker system did not play music. They could not fix the issue in time because the match needed to start promptly."

In addition to the apology letters sent to Vietnam and Laos, Director General Gongsak also wrote to FAT, requesting a review of the incident.

Players sing their national anthems without music before Vietnam's 2-1 victory over Laos in their Group B men's football opener at SEA Games 33, held at Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on 3/12.

Beyond the sound issue, the lighting system at Rajamangala Stadium also experienced problems, with many lights malfunctioning. Nevertheless, Gongsak affirmed that the brightness still exceeded the minimum standard of 1,500 lux. SAT's solution will be to bring a lighting system from a stadium in Nakhon Ratchasima to replace the faulty one.

Regarding the organizational budget, he stated that THASOC was approved for an expenditure of two billion baht, equivalent to approximately 1,650 billion dong, which is about one billion baht less than SEA Games 32 in Cambodia. Therefore, the use of funds must be strictly managed.

Songkhla province's inability to host events due to flooding necessitated an additional expenditure of 160 million baht, while the government could not allocate more funds to focus on disaster relief. However, the SAT director general affirmed that competition standards remain unchanged and organizational work will proceed as scheduled.

A few days prior, THASOC encountered a flag error for the Thailand - Indonesia match in Group A of women's football, specifically in the 4/12 schedule. The design team mistakenly used the flag of Laos for Indonesia and Vietnam for Thailand. The image was quickly removed after being posted on social media channels, under the fanpage "SEA Games Thailand 2025". However, it still caused significant public outrage in Thailand.

In a statement this afternoon, the unit managing this channel said it receives information from multiple agencies. Therefore, content, images, and posts may sometimes be inaccurate or incomplete, and beyond the page's control.

"We commit to verifying official information to ensure the highest accuracy and continuously support the dissemination of SEA Games information", the statement read. "We sincerely apologize for any errors in the information or communication materials we have published".